Myanmar refugees find friendly faces in U.S.

His wife, Sue, was going to pick up newly arrived refugees from Myanmar at the Connecticut Limo depot and drive them to apartments rented for them. Could he please, she asked, come and help?

“My first impulse was, I can’t make it. Then I thought, what I had to do could wait,” said Pathammavong, a city resident who works as a management support specialist with the Social Security Administration in Stamford.

As soon as he saw Paw Thoo, 10, and his family, it brought back memories of Pathammavong’s own arrival in the United States nearly three decades ago from the country formerly known as Burma, when he was 12.

“I can’t tell you the feeling I had that night,” Pathammavong said. “I don’t really remember much. I did know we fled communism. It was scary.”

The Pathammavongs are among a growing number of former refugees being tapped by the International Institute in Bridgeport to help make the transition smoother for new arrivals.

Though Laotian, the Pathammavongs share the same Thai language with the Myanmar refugees who have spent much or all of their lives in the Tham Hin refugee camps in Thailand.

The Pathammavongs’ route to America was through the Thai refugee camps as well.

Between June and July of this year, 77 Myanmar refugees were resettled in Bridgeport and Waterbury. Another 20 came in August. By the end of September, the population of Myanmar people in the region should swell by 167 men, women and children.

At least 16 are expected to be enrolled in Bridgeport public schools once they are administered the required vaccinations. Most come to America with a small bag of belongings and little else. Some have never been to school and have never held a job. In the refugee camps, such pursuits aren’t allowed.

Myra Oliver, director of the International Institute, said a deal was recently struck between the U.S. and Thai governments to allow the Myanmar refugees to leave. Some have been in the camps for 15 years after leaving a homeland embroiled in civil strife.

Because so many of the new arrivals speak Thai, in addition to Karen, their native dialect, Oliver reached out to the region’s Southeast Asian community, who themselves were refugees in the late 1970s following the Vietnam War.

When he first arrived here, Nick Pathammavong was resettled to Hartford in June 1977. Sue and her family were settled in Bridgeport a short time later.

Sue’s grandfather, Kienthong Keorajavongsay, was once an ambassador to Washington. Nick’s father was educated, had served in the military and spoke English, like many of the refugees from Laos and Cambodia able to get out after the fall of Vietnam.

Pathammavong recalls his hardest adjustment was starting school in the U.S. and making new friends.

Sue, who arrived in America when she was 8, said one of her first recollections is meeting “Miss Oliver” of the International Institute for the first time.

Among this latest group, Sue can identify with Aehshalay Lay, an 11-year-old with a shy smile. The couple is also fond of a little girl, age 6, whose name is Snowfield.

Snowfield’s parents have both found jobs since their arrival. Her father speaks English and helps translate for women who have already found factory jobs.

The men hope to all have jobs soon.

Oliver said the institute’s job is to make the refugees self-sufficient as soon as possible. When they arrive, the families get apartments and welfare benefits. They are taught how to access things in the community. Most manage to become self-sufficient in less than six months. In five years, they can apply for citizenship.

In some cases, the refugees must be taught to use and manage money and how to keep safe.

Bridgeport and Waterbury were high on the list of resettlement locations, because there are small communities of Myanmar people in Norwalk and Naugatuck. Aiding in the resettlement efforts are several Buddhist monks in the state. They are pooling resources to give furniture, clothing and moral support to the new immigrants.